Research

Bumble bee Demography & Resource availability

I am currently studying bumble bee ecology, conservation, and responses to anthropogenic stressors. My current project aims to understand how the timing of resources influences bumble bee colony success and reproductive performance, and how these may differ in different landscape contexts (urban vs rural spaces). A large part of this work was learning how to rear bumble bee colonies in the lab from wild-caught queens - an exciting endeavor!

Upper Photo by Griffin Moores

monarch habitat availability

I've worked on multiple projects to quantify milkweed host plants and floral resources across both large and small spatial scales, and in a variety of land use types including solar installations, roadsides, urban areas, California public lands, and Conservation Reserve Program lands.

Relevant Publications:

Host-Parasite interactions

As an undergraduate and post-baccalaureate researcher at the University of Minnesota, I studied butterfly-parasite interactions involving Pteromalus wasps and tachinid flies.

Relevant Publications: Tachinid Fly (Diptera: Tachinidae) Parasitoids of Danaus plexippus (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae)

Photo by Carl Stenoien